In the last number of the second season of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Rebecca looks out over the waters just hours before her wedding to Josh Chan, the man she’s been chasing since season one. As she gazes out on the horizon, she longingly sings about being the “hero in her own story”. In Rebecca’s mind, winning the heart of Josh Chan was always the dream that would solve all of her problems. Although Josh was always Rebecca’s end game, the show clearly had other plans. The quest for Josh was only a symptom of the major storm that has been brewing since before Rebecca set foot in West Covina. By end of the finale, Rebecca’s impending breaking point comes into sharper relief than ever before.
Episode 213, “Can Josh Take a Leap of Faith?”, picks up a just couple of days before the Bunch-Chan wedding. Rebecca’s father has shown up to half-heartedly join in on the wedding festivities and Rebecca elatedness is still suppressing the issues that have plagued her over the the show’s entire run. The hilariously hardcore “What a Rush to Be a Bride” expertly encapsulates Rebecca’s pre-wedding mindset. It revealed that twisted sense of happiness that Rebecca maintains while, as always, being enabled by Paula. By now Crazy Ex-Girlfriend has established that Josh is not her happy ending, but a distraction from the mental health issues that Rebecca refuses to address.
The most frustrating moments of the show come when Rebecca is tantalizingly close to finally facing the deep seated issues that are actually preventing her from finding true happiness. No less than three times this season she finds herself back in the therapist chair ready to tackle her problems when suddenly something distracts her, returning her to her self destructive ways. The season finale takes this to new heights, fully revealing a sordid past involving a Harvard law professor, a stint in a mental institution and the full extent of her daddy issues. Viewers get to sort out Rebecca’s issues before she even scratches the surface.
Rebecca’s mental health issues manifest in her obsession with having a movie worthy romance. As Rebecca continuously tries and fails to fulfill these tropes it becomes more and more apparent that her life is far from the movie musical she imagines it to be. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend lives for making, breaking and manipulating these classic romance movie cliches — the rom-com, the “will they or won’t they”, “destined to be together” and now, the spurned woman.
The men in Rebecca’s life, starting with her dad, have always failed her, a fact that she has deeply internalized. This is never more evident than at the end of the episode. After Josh decides to become a priest in an extremely well executed twist, Rebecca finally realizes her father will never love her in the way that she wants. In an empowering moment, surrounded by her friends, she kicks him out of her life. In any other story that would be the end. Rebecca would ride off into the sunset with her newfound sense of self-worth and the credits would roll. Thankfully, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is not telling that story.
The second season of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend effortlessly built on the foundation established in the first season. Even with the loss of Santino Fontana’s Greg (he will be missed), the show continued to put out some of it’s best episodes to date. That the show is not only surviving but thriving is a credit to show creators Rachel Bloom and Aline McKenna. Original music is usually a death sentence for most television show (see Cop Rock), but Bloom and McKenna have been able to garner both critical acclaim and a loyal fan base. The most exciting part is that they’re just getting started.
